Head-up displays are typically integrated into a vehicle dashboard and are intended to supply a passenger of the vehicle with information such as the current vehicle speed, the fuel gauge and/or warnings, for example. Typically, the visual information is projected onto a mirror or a combiner that is reversibly transformable between a usage position and a non-usage position.
In general, it is advantageous to realize a compact head-up display due to the limited space in front of the passenger. It is therefore reliable to arrange the components of the head-up display directly next to each other. As a consequence, the space between a kinematic device (for transforming the combiner between the usage and the non-usage position) and a liquid crystal device, such as a thin film transistor (TFT)-display, is limited. This space is, however, provided for a light source that generates the backlight for illuminating the TFT-display as it is needed for projecting the visual information generated by the TFT-display onto the screen. Consequently, heat being generated by the light source of the operating head-up display influences the TFT-display negatively and can even destroy it.